Four Loveland runners are off to the Boston Marathon

Loveland residents, from left, Nicole Fellure, Adam Morgan, Amy Hallagan and Brad Ray pose Monday at Loveland Sports Park. All four will be participating in the Boston Marathon this coming Monday.
(Timothy Hurst)

Fact:

The first Boston marathon was organized by John Graham in 1897.

Adam Morgan is the beginner. He has done one marathon.

Nicole Fellure has run in three, Amy Hallagan has done 11. And Brad Ray? Brad Ray has completed 70 marathons.

The four Loveland residents are qualifiers in the Boston Marathon and will compete in the race Monday.

The training period for races of this caliber is about 16 weeks, the four agreed, although "most people are year-round runners," Ray said.

Fellure said it's typical to gradually increase mileage and then fluctuate up and down in miles until the last week before the race, when runners decrease miles to save their legs for the big run.

"It's enjoyable to test yourself, push yourself," Hallagan said.

Fact:

The first Boston marathon was 24.5 miles.

Hallagan and Fellure often train together and said it's harder to get up and get going on some days than others, like those icy cold mornings when the water bottle is frozen solid.

"It's not one of those things you can skip because you don't feel like it," Ray said.

Fellure and her husband Jacob co-direct the Loveland Roadrunners and organize three Loveland races a year.

She and Hallagan ran a Steamboat Springs marathon to qualify for Boston. Hallagan needed to beat 3 hours and 40 minutes, and made it at 3:20.

Fellure's qualifying time had to be 3:35, and she made it with 2 minutes to spare at 3:33.

Hallagan said that races are different for every person. Some are racing against other people, some want to beat personal times and some just want to finish

"It's a mental challenge; all you can do is overcome that mental challenge," she said.

Morgan loves to run, even when he's training.

"My wife kind of hates that," he said. His wife also is a runner, and Morgan said she gets annoyed at him for enjoying long-distance running a little too much.

Morgan ran a marathon in Vancouver, Wash. with a time of 3 hours and 8 minutes, which meant he also just qualified for Boston at 3:10.

Fact:

In 1924, the course was lengthened to 26 miles 385 yards to conform to the Olympic standard.

Morgan, Hallagan and Fellure said they were all happy to meet a racer in the elite division of the Boston Marathon; Brad Ray.

The Boston Marathon was the first major marathon to allow a wheelchair division in 1975, according to the race website.

Ray was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair.

Ray said he was overweight and a workaholic seven years ago. He had a racing chair meant for speed but had never considered actually using it to race.

A friend dared him to train for the New York City Marathon. He lost 80 pounds in six months and raced in a couple of other races while training for the marathon.

He said his first marathon time was 3 hours, 47 minutes, which is slow for a wheelchair racer, he said.

Fact:

The marathon is 26 miles 385 yards because that was the distance that the 1908 Olympic Games stipulated so King Edward VII and Queen Alexandria could see the start and finish from Windsor Castle in
England

After New York, Ray trained for his first Boston Marathon. He continued to set goals for himself and trains with a coach in Longmont.He is training for the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.

For the marathon on Monday, the wheelchair qualifying time is 2 hours. Ray's best time is 1 hour, 36 minutes.

"(Racing) pushes you to the limit beyond what normal is. Just to finish a race is pretty great. It is the best feeling ever," he said.